Luma Raises $3 Million, Partners With Payment Company

San Diego  LumaTax, which developed software to streamline sales tax compliance for small business owners, said it has raised $3 million in a financing round led by Cowboy Ventures. Existing investors Madrona Venture Group and Greycroft Partners and new investor Vulcan Capital also participated.

Proceeds will go to expand the company’s geographic reach to additional markets that collect sales tax.

The company was founded by serial entrepreneur Robert Schulte, who sold his previous software company, Taxcient, which streamlined sales tax compliance for corporations, to Washington State-based Avalara.

LumaTax is based in San Diego and Seattle; the company started within Pioneer Square Labs, a startup studio that launched in Seattle in 2015, but has since spun out.

“LumaTax was founded on the premise that machines are more capable of performing complex audit and compliance tasks than humans,” Schulte, LumaTax’s CEO, said. “Our objective is to level the regulatory playing field for businesses by bringing them a touch-free compliance experience — at the cost of about four lattes a month.”

In 2016, LumaTax raised a seed round of $2 million.

The company also announced it has partnered with Square, the mobile payment company, so merchants who use that payment platform can file sales taxes via LumaTax.